Imagine the scene of this panel in its original glorious indigo color. The
youthful orbed Christ, seated on a throne, raises his two fingers in
blessing. Christ gazes towards a haloed figure with short hair and abeard,
whose Greek inscription names him Simon Peter. The figures are placed
within arcades resting on columns; the arched canopies and upholstery
are marbled.

This panel was probably part of a much largers scene, entailing a frieze
depicting the enthroned Christ at the center, flanked by apostles.
Similar arrangements occur on Christian sarcophagi such as that of Junius
Bassus, now in the Vatican.

This hanging may have had a liturgical use. It was made at a time when
early Christian subjects were rendered in classical forms. The figures'
ample garments, Christ's rhetorical gesture, his rounded face in
three-quarter view, his curly hair and soft glance, and the illusion of
depth created by foreshortening Christ's hand and foregrounding the
flanking candelabra--all bespeak the grammar of late antiquity.

The cloth was dyed by the resist printing method, which Pliny describes
in his Natural History (35.42) as purely Egyptian. Examples of
this technique have been found at Akhmim and Antinoe depicting both
mythological and Christian themes and date as early as the fourth
century. The creator of this
plain-weave
linen cloth would have spread a
protective layer of wax or clay on the area intended to be left undyed, or
reserved. It is not known if brushes or some other types of tools were
used to apply the resist substance, but the technique is similar to the
making of batik fabrics. When the resist was dry, the cloth was plunged
into a vat of indigo dye.